Officials: U.s. Spearheads Effort To Bring Pol Pot To Tribunal

The Secretary Of State Asked Canada To Request The Extradition Of The Leader Under The Country's Genocide Law.

June 23, 1997|By New York Times

WASHINGTON — The United States and other countries have asked Canada to be the key partner in an extraordinary effort to take the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, out of Cambodia to face an international tribunal for crimes against humanity, American and foreign officials said on Sunday.

Both the Khmer Rouge forces who have turned against Pol Pot and are holding him in the Cambodian jungle and the Cambodian government in Phnom Penh are seeking international help for a plan to ensure that he is swiftly and safely taken out of the country, officials involved in the negotiations said. They want such a plan in place before they hand him over.

More than 1 million Cambodians died when the Khmer Rouge ruled the country from 1975 to 1979, and the group has remained a military and political force since it was ousted by Vietnamese forces. But it is now falling apart, with troops defecting to the government and Pol Pot's own men turning on him.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright asked the Canadian foreign minister, Lloyd Axworthy, to request the extradition of Pol Pot under Canada's law against genocide, according to government officials. Only Canada and Denmark have laws that would permit them to request such an extradition, officials said.

If Canada agrees, giving the international community the legitimacy it requires, the United States is prepared to coordinate sending a military team and aircraft to Cambodia to take Pol Pot out, American officials said.

Cambodian officials have asked that any tribunal be held under U.N. auspices.

The Cambodian government has been adamant that Pol Pot be taken out of the country for fear of mob violence and the political repercussions of his arrest. The leaders of the current Cambodian government, which was elected in 1992 under a peace plan sponsored by the United Nations, were allies of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge at various stages since the Communist group was founded in 1960.

The two co-prime ministers, Prince Norodom Rannaridh and Hun Sen, are engaged in an explosive rivalry for power, and both have appealed to various factions of the Khmer Rouge to defect.

The plan being worked out would include extraditing Pol Pot to Canada as a temporary measure until an international tribunal is convened that could try him under the international Genocide Convention.